How to Answer Questions in a Senior Meeting

Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tominczuk.

And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.

Hey, this is Quick. Take Welcome. This is where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of people everywhere. I'm Suzy Tominczuk, along with my partner, james Capps. How are you, james?

Good Suzy, You seemed surprised I was here. What was that? pregnant pause there.

It's like oh, i forgot James is here, so this is going to be all about me, because I want some advice from you. actually, i was thinking last time we talked about stupid questions and I was thinking about different scenarios for answering questions And you know what?

I have a big presentation coming up where I'm presenting to a senior team about a solution that I want them to put into place, and so I was like what if they ask me questions Like how do I prepare for the questions if I don't know what that, what, where they're coming from, and I don't know them that well? So I wanted to get some advice. Yeah.

I think a lot of people. You know you spend a lot of time prepping for a meeting and you get your slides together and then you don't give some thought to that Q&A. And you know we've talked about a Q&A at a town hall and how to do that right. But I think it's from a presenter's point of view who the person who is at the podium saying are there any questions? You know, do you need to be ready and prepared for that next five minutes, next 15 minutes, because that's just as important and can leave just as a strong of impression as even the content of your presentation. So I think it's really wise to give some thought to that topic.

All right, well, good, well, i'm hoping that you give me some advice so that I am ready, because it's the thing that makes me the most nervous.

Right, right. Well, i think that you know, one of the things that makes you a great speaker and makes a lot of people good presenters is their empathy and their ability to pay attention to the audience. And I think, at the end of the day, the most important thing when you are listening to a question is you have to be an active listener. You have to really listen to the question that they're asking, because it's so important that you understand what they're asking. You know I will take a step back, and you know I have joked in many occasions that, especially when you're on a panel, you know you don't have to answer the question asked.

You give them the answer that you want to give Right And you answer the question you wanted them to ask. And I mean that's always a good advice for certain circumstances. But when you have presented on something on a particular topic and an audience member asked a specific question about that, you need to be prepared to answer that, And the best way to do it is to truly listen, be an active listener and listen all the way to the end. So often you will begin to think that you know the question that they're asking and you want to be sure that you allow them the opportunity to finish their thought and then so you can directly answer the question that they asked Yeah, and you know what I love about that is that will leave an impression.

If you do cut them off, and not just to them. But I can't stand when people do that to other people. It just completely turns me off. So that's really good. Advice is just to be active listener, because I tend to have my mind thinking about how did I do? So I really if I need to really think about what they're asking so that I don't get caught in my mind somewhere else.

Right, and it's calming for you, as a presenter, to take a step, take a breath and listen to that question.

Okay, so that's the first one.

Yeah. Second one is I think it's super important to know your audience and be prepared to answer the question from where they are Right, and so they may ask the question with words that you think you know the answer to. But you know, consider the audience. If you're presenting to a group of people and the CFO asks you a question, those words in that answer may be very different than maybe the CTO or the CHRO or the COO asks, and so you may want to respond in a way that addresses their concerns or their space. I think that's always wise to try to customize your response to something that really meets the needs of the person that's asking, and knowing where they're coming from always makes your answer that much more powerful.

Ooh, Do you think it's okay to like kind of qualify Like if it does come from the CFO? let me think about that from your perspective. I guess the way I would do this. This is.

Yeah, i think that's great And I think that shows some respect to who the audience members are or the questioner is, and maybe they're not interested in that. Maybe they're saying, you know, actually, no, i'm not interested in it from my point of view. I'm talking about it more globally or, hey, great point, there is a perspective here, but I'm really thinking about it from this creating, you know, being confident in the dialogue and being specific. You know, i always like to respond with the, with a Reply, with the question, in the way that you heard it, with your words, and so if you can say, well, gee, that's a great question, you know, if I was you as the, as the CFO, i would want to know this and let me answer that question. So I think that's always a great way to to validate the person who was asking.

Okay, i'm gonna have a follow-up question, but I'm gonna see what your third is, to make sure that I don't step on you, oh.

No, go for it. I'm super excited I can.

Okay, so So when you answer the question that came from the CFO and you get done, do I say does that answer your question? Is that good best practice or not?

Because that's a nervous tick of mine, boy, that's a great, that's a great question.

I think that You know, if it depends on the situation, it depends on the dialogue and really I would almost say the format of the question and answer. You know, i think that I Think, in some cases, if the question is vague, if you haven't been able to be specific in the question and you're not clear, you may ask that. Oftentimes, though, i avoid that by simply stating the question up front in my own language. So I know I answered the question right. But then if you regurgitate the question, like the CFO asked, and you say, well, is the CFO, i can understand, so you, what you're asking me as a, b and C, well, you know, if you answered that question because you asked it out loud, right, and I think, i do think that you, you, you show more command of the situation If you basically answer the question. You end up asking and, frankly, if, if the CFO or the audience member is serious about Understanding that situation, they may, they should say, well, that's, that's not what I asked.

So I would say at the end which I need to make sure I'm intentional about, because I'm kind of nervous answering the questions To intentionally stop and practice silence and like not just ramble on.

I think that's important too. I think you want to answer the question, move on. I do think that you, you do want to show that you have command of the room, command of the situation, and I think it's like you want to answer the question, say thank you for the question and move on. I just think that that's a better, a better, better, a better brand. You're on more on brand of being the person who's really in charge.

Okay, yeah, shows confidence, all right. so what's the third one?

Well, i think the third one is probably the most difficult and for many of us, especially technology people, we have this tendency is really to lose our way in answering the question. I think it's really important for you to have structure in the way that you answer that question and you want to Be succinct, you want to be crisp, you want to clearly answer the question. Then you want to be done with it. You know, so often I know we've all been in meetings where somebody stops and goes What was the question? Did I answer your question Because they're now over here talking about something completely ridiculous?

and completely off topic.

I'm a big believer in repeating the question, answering the question and tell them what you told them and tell them again and then get out. You want that to be very crisp. You want to stay on topic. Now it's interesting and fun to go. Hey, let me answer your question, but that makes me think of something else and then you can go into left field. But I think it's really important for you to be clear and intentional in that particular moment, have a good structure to your response and be sure that you know that the answer. Then, that way you know the question has been answered and you've made your point.

Oh, i love that. Yeah, it's so good. We often don't think and have an intention about how we're going to move into this and how we're going to end it, to move on to the next.

Yeah, and it's easy to do. You get caught up in thought and the problem with this is most often you're presenting on something you know and you're passionate about and you're excited and you want to tell people what.

Not only do you want to showcase your knowledge, but you also want to tell them that adjacency, that detail, that nuance that may not be appropriate at the time And given the presentation, given the type of presentation. Maybe you're constrained by time, maybe it's that you only have a few minutes during another meeting, maybe there's a hard stop. You've got to be really crisp on making sure that you accomplished what you set out to accomplish and didn't leave on a sour note or leave everybody wanting more because you lost your plot.

Yeah, I also just said to get your advice on this is. I feel like if you're doing like an hour presentation, maybe like three questions like how long do you wait for questions? How do you pull it out of people? Maybe just get a couple and then move on.

Yeah, I think that it's tough to have that moment where people are not necessarily responding Yeah, Like as the presenter it's. You know, we've talked about having questions queued up, having somebody prep you some questions so you can create that dialogue, And I think that's great advice for a town hall meeting, one that you want to kind of prime the pump. But you know, in my mind in this conversation, it's you in a boardroom or you in a conference room and you're presenting to an audience that simply does or does not have questions. Then I think you just give a pause and thank the team and move on and be done.

Look, I think so many of us think that there is, that we have this fear of scarcity and that this is the last moment, like, if it's a good topic and you're giving a good presentation and there are questions, they'll find you for a question. They'll find you. They will come to you with questions. Maybe the politics aren't right, maybe the time isn't right for those questions to be asked. Just move on.

Yeah, you know it's so funny when you think about a presentation that you're doing, you often say, oh, and here's the thank you site, okay, i got it, and we don't think about what is it going to look like to move into questions, and then that. So I think this is a really important discussion so that people do put some intention and thought around this last section. That is just as important sometimes as a presentation.

Like I think we've all been in presentations where they just don't end on a good note. They end weirdly or even worse. We've been in a meeting where we run out of time and everybody walks out of there feeling unfulfilled.

And it's like what just happened there We didn't do, was that that last slide Did she finish? I don't know what happened there. And if you can avoid that by just having a nice closed box presentation and then this have and then your Q and A be neatly as sinked as it can be, it just it goes to the overall quality of your, of your presentation. So I think that's super important to think people thoughtful here.

And just so I don't forget, what are your three, what are the three?

Should I recap those? Okay, first one, be an active listener, you know. Be sure to allow the questioner to finish their thought, make sure you're answering the question, getting to hear what they truly want. And then, secondly, answer the question from their point of view. Understand what they're asking, maybe not in the words that they're saying, but also who they are and the role that they play, so you may be able to fill in some corners of the question to truly answer the question that they are asking. And third, really I think it's super important that you have a nice and crisp answer, that you are succinct in the way that you answer questions and that you clearly get to the end of the answer in a way that allows the user or the listener to hear that that you answered it and you're ready to move on.

Awesome, fantastic, as always. James, thank you, thanks so much, and to our quicksters, thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for joining us this week.

We're glad you're here, so this has been Quick Take. I'm Susie Tomincheck, along with my partner James Capps, that I was not surprised you were here.

You are just part of it.

We're both on LinkedIn, so connect with us, ask us questions, tell us what you think. We would really appreciate hearing from you and share this with somebody if they're facing a presentation and they need to have this prep. Make them better people by giving them this episode. So thanks for joining us. We appreciate you. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

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